Month: March 2016

Random train graffiti
We spent part of the Easter weekend in Barrie and Horseshoe Valley at my sister’s. Before hand my Mom came drove up a day earlier to spent a few nights here. We watched Gone Girl, which was actually pretty good and had some amazing pizza that Bdot made. Pretty sure my Mom is convinced that Netflix is awesome. We watched an interesting slideshow from her trip to Mexico. She took a ton of beautiful photos. She now has the photo bug and even bought her own Canon point and shoot yesterday! When we stopped to shop in Barrie we were around Mapleview. Gawd. That area on a Saturday is ridiculous. In transit to my sister’s we got stuck waiting for a train for over 10 minutes. I don’t recall every waiting so long for a train…We had a nice dinner and walk around the block then headed home. We all met my sister’s newest addition THE BEAST. Her new kitten. She calls him Boston, which is where she is heading soon for the Boston Marathon! She is hoping for a 3h10m time. Good luck sis!

The Nvidia Shield K1
I debated about which new Android tablet to get for some time. I settled on the Nvidia Shield K1. The main criteria was price. I liked the Pixel C and many of the Samsung Galaxy Tabs but they are all twice or three times the price of the K1. Frankly my experience has been that tablets are not build to last… so I wanted the best bang for the buck. I also think the software is a huge part of the experience. And the K1 is one of the few tablets on Android Marshmallow 6.0. The newest version of Android. (That said there seems to be some issues with the 6.0 update, it seems Nvidia has even suspended the download of it…) So I’m current on Android 5.1.1 which so far, operates flawlessly. One of the things I want to be able to do is connect the K1 to the TV to watch sports. The K1 has HDMI-mini out, so it is super easy to do. I’m happy with it so far. It seems like a solid Android tablet.The stand setting (for reference so I can toss the box out!)Nvidia Shield K1 Specs:PROCESSOR NVIDIA® Tegra® K1 192 core Kepler GPU 2.2 GHz ARM Cortex A15 CPU with 2 GB RAMDISPLAY 8-inch 1920×1200 multi-touch Full-HD displayVIDEO FEATURES 4K Ultra-HD ReadyAUDIO Front facing stereo speakers with built-in microphoneSTORAGE 16 GBWIRELESS 802.11n 2×2 MIMO 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 LE, GPS / GLONASSINTERFACES Mini-HDMI output, Micro-USB 2.0, MicroSD slot, 3.5 mm stereo headphone jack with microphone supportMOTION SENSORS 3-axis gyro, 3-axis accelerometer, 3-axis compassGAMING FEATURES SHIELD controller compatible, GeForce NOW™ cloud gaming service, Console Mode, NVIDIA ShadowPlayCAMERAS Front: 5MP HDR; Back: 5MP auto-focus HDRWEIGHT AND SIZE Weight: 12.6 oz / 356 g, Height: 8.8 in / 221 mm Width: 5.0 in / 126 mm, Depth: 0.36 in / 9.2 mmSOFTWARE UPDATES SHIELD software upgrades directly from NVIDIABATTERY 19.75 Watt HoursOPERATING SYSTEM Android Lollipop OS (Android 6.0 Marshmallow Over-The-Air upgrade available)INCLUDED APPS Google Play, NVIDIA SHIELD Hub, Fallout Shelter, NVIDIA Dabbler™, Squid, Twitch

I’m happy to say out trees survived Ice Storm 2. I’ve heard many people lost power for 12-24h! Fortunately our hydro lines are under ground so we were no impacted.The tree bent but did not break. Phew.Icy.Icy tips.

Update!
So I contacted Nvidia about updating to 6.0/1.1. They said everything should be fine. So I updated. And everything is fine. Phew. Run quite nice actually… and I have 40G free on my tablet!

Ice everywhere
Spring welcomed the region with a nasty ice storm. My drive into work was very slow… I crept along the 410 at 10km/h. I did see a few cars in ditches. There are always people who ignore reason and driving conditions but considering how much ice there was, I saw relatively few accidents. The biggest issue for me when we get an ice storm is our poor trees. We planted a few trees in the backyard a few years ago and they have already endured two ice storms. I happy our primary Maple in the front, so far, looks like it is withstanding the icy blanket that covers it. It is quite beautiful in spite of its destructiveness.Backyard trees
We are having Easter dinner at my Sister’s tomorrow. My Mom is coming up early today to stay over at our place. I haven’t seen her since she returned from Mexico.

I’m itching to pull the trigger on a Android Tablet. I like the Dell Venue 8 7000 (great name Dell :P) and the Nvidia Shield K1. Both reviewed quite well. The Dell’s screen is exceptional, as is its battery life. The K1 is marketed as a gaming tablet. I don’t really care about that. I would use it for content consumption not gaming but it is still a solid Android tablet. The Nexus 9, Pixel C, and Samsung Tabs are also interesting but I’m surprised by the massive price up for these products. So I’m really undecided. I even thought maybe a Chromebook, but I don’t want to run Chrome OS, I definitely want to run Android. Ideally Android 5 or 6. Not Kitkat (4.4.4). Hmm….

I’m also still waiting for Remix to get a full release. I’ve yet to have it run with any of my video cards. Of any of the options having an Android based PC is the most interesting… I may get a cheap Dell to run Remix on…

From Winter to Spring
After a very long week of returning to work I was glad for a nice weekend. The weather is now hovering around zero, which is decent for hiking. We did a hike out of Nicola Ross’ Caledon hiking book. It was essentially the Tom East Bruce Trail Side trail loop. It was a lovely hike. It had numerous changes in elevation and a picturesque little stream. I’d certainly do this section again, the Hockley region is stunning.Tom East – Bruce Trail Side Trail

All that walking did make us very hungry. We opted for some yummy Caribbean from Soulyve. I had the amazing Guyanese Curry Chicken and Bdot enjoyed the Coconut Cajun Shrimp.

In the evening we finally watched the final part of the Mockingjay series. It was good but not great. Felt a little lackluster for climactic conclusion.

By contrast Ant Man was a delightful surprise. Funny, good action and well paced.

Finally.
I’m happy to say I was hired last week by a small Tech business in Oakville. It has only been a few days there but I’m hopeful that it will work out. Obviously more on this as it evolves. It is a huge change and it is certainly taking some time to get back in the swing of things. I’ve been very tired at night this week.

Coming home I passed through a crazy storm today. The sky was disturbingly dark and I drove into it… Rain was whipping across the ground and it was the most intense lightning I’ve seen in years. One massive bolt in particular – I sure hope it didn’t hit someone’s home.

Fun Sabres game tonight. Outplayed the Habs and still lost in OT. Sigh.

Award winning performance by J.K. Simmons. Intense!
Since we had dinner already prepared (delicious Turkey Meatballs and Bok Choi) we had a little extra down time last night. So we decided to watch a movie. We settled on Whiplash. It is a movie about a student attending one of the top music schools on Earth. It was fictional but it sure felt real. The story revolved around a drummer and his relationship with his fiery music teacher, who via dramatic means, intended to push his students to be the best they can. As a fan of music, and a drummer, I loved the movie. It isn’t surprising it won an Oscar for editing. It was really slickly shot with brilliant cuts and gratuitous cymbal and drum shots. It was certainly a bit melodramatic at times. The music was awesome. A must see for any fan of music.

Highlighted: The last of the snow….
We had a good amount of snow around the property for about a month. Within a few days however, Mother Nature has melted it away to nothing. Just one final, stubborn pile is holding on in the backyard. I’m certainly ready for Spring.

Palgrave Forest
Did spend a good chunk of the weekend hibernating… Although we did get a walk in at Palgrave.

We destroyed Sushi from Ume. I think we are both on a first name basis there. The entertainment was the movie Room. It was a creepy story about abduction. It was well acted and written. I didn’t love it though. I liked how some of the film appeared to be from the 5 year old’s point of view. How would a five year old see the world if the only world they knew was a small room with a skylight. The power of imagination was interesting. The first half of the movie was far more interesting than the second half.

Snow fading away
Slowly the snow is receding and disappearing. It is suppose to be double digits tomorrow.

The region got hit with a pretty decent snowfall. Of course the snow blower wouldn’t start…. so both of use are feeling the pain of multiple snow removals. Ugh. Looks nice outside though.

I mentioned before trying to get RemixOS working on my older PC. It was a gong show. A time sucking gong show. So they are at BETA now… which means it really should be getting close to a release but I still can’t get it to run. I’m pretty sure it is a video driver issue. I’ve tried about five different video cards (like I did for Alpha) and the OS boots, gets to the ” Android x86 line” then the dreaded black screen of fail. The install to Hard method got it this far… Meh.
What irritates me is they are targeting this OS for legacy computers but seems to fail on a ton of older video cards. “Old dog, new tricks. Who said you can’t teach an old dog new tricks? Remix OS for PC allows you to experience Remix OS on a vast array of existing Intel-based PCs already out in the world.” I also wonder if AMD is even supported? Oh well. I noticed that the Android-x86 Open Source Project has partnered with RemixOS (Jide Technology) so this is promising. I’ve had better luck with Android x86 distros than Remix. Wait and see I guess. Ho-hum.